wife's computer freezes on startup

Are you able to start it in safe mode? That's, um, hold down, I think it's F8, while starting.

If you can start it in safe mode, you can start to do the timber standard cleanup and diagnostics, many of which have to be done in safe mode, anyway. What you can also do is look at the startup file and see if anything can be removed, even legit programs. E. g. for example, there's probably no need to have an instant messaging program click on with start up. You may need to go into individual programs, work on their properties, in order to keep them from clicking on at startup.

Yep, it's F8. Here's some more info on safe mode: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm